Good practice:

Centro Geen Deal project (Centro GD)

Circular economy has become a strategic domain in Centro region of Portugal. As it is known, the amounts spent in public procurement across Europe and the world are very relevant. Public Procurement can thus play a key role in stimulating the transition to a circular economy by including “circular principles” into procurement practices.
The economy is demand driven: if we want to promote innovation, sustainability or the transition to a circular economy, which implies a change in the production and in the consumption processes, acting through the demand side can be a very effective way to push the transition to CE.
Thus, the participants, when joining this voluntary project, agree with two basic requirements: launching 2 pilots (tenders) with circular principles; and sharing the knowledge and experiences acquired during this process.
Centro Green Deal’s (Centro GD) network is composed by 13 entities: 5 intermunicipality associations, 3 municipalities, 2 polytechnic schools and 1 university, 1 hospital and CCDRC. These stakeholders are those who voluntarily joined this effort of promoting Circular Economy via procurement.
Moreover, as a project that is inspired in the Dutch model, Centro GD also enables direct access to lessons learned by other international Green Deals.

Centro GD had support from Rijkswaterstaat, a national expert on procurement and from the OECD public procurement department (funded by the DG Regio “Strategic Public Procurement” pilot action). CCDRC expenses were below 15.000 EUR. All stakeholders involved in this action acted in a voluntary basis

The first edition was launched in April 2019 and it will end in 2020: in just over a year 13 regional stakeholders decided to take part in this important voluntary scheme, demonstrating the level of engagement and the potential of circular economy for all stakeholders in Centro Region.
Centro GD also benefits from the support of the Rijkswaterstaat, OECD and an Advisory Board (7 national agencies relevant for this process: ANI, APA, ANMP, ESPAP, IMPIC, AMA, LNEG).

As a project that is inspired in the Dutch model, Centro GD enables direct access to lessons learned by other international Green Deals, promoting the sharing of knowledge. The potential for the transmission of good practices and learning activities is therefore assured by design and it can be reproduced by other regions that have the potential to develop voluntary circular procurement networks in their territories.